Les Paul to Be Honored By Rock Hall With American Music Masters Concert

Guitarist Les Paul will be honored by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Gibson Guitars on November 15th as part of this year's American Music Masters series. "The Wizard of Waukesha: The Life and Legacy of Les Paul" will hit the stage of Cleveland's Playhouse Square State Theatre and feature a week's worth of events dedicated to the guitar pioneer, including panels, film screenings and even an academic conference. The tribute culminates with a concert on the 15th, which organizers hope the 93-year-old Paul can attend. Paul was inducted into the RRHOF in 1988 and performed a sold-out show at the venue in 2004. The list of performers that will play the concert will be announced soon. Paul is only the second living American musician to be honored by the American Music Masters series; past honorees include Sam Cooke, Roy Orbison and Buddy Holly. At last year's tribute to Jerry Lee Lewis, the Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde, George Thorogood and Kris Kristofferson took the stage.

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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